London midday: Miners, oil stocks drag FTSE lower after hawkish Fed

Heavy falls in the resource sectors on a stronger dollar ensured that London's stock market was firmly in the red on Tuesday, after the withdrawal of stimulus by the Federal Reserve.

Blue chips Shell, Barclays and BT Group were also lower after a poor reaction to their latest results, with the FTSE 100 down 1% at 6,392 by midday.

The negative start follows a weak performance on Wall Street on Wednesday night after the Federal Open Market Committee voted to end its quantitative easing programme.

While the decision came as no surprise and the Fed maintained its pledge to keep interest rates low for a "considerable time", analysts highlighted a hawkish tone to the accompanying statement.

Policymakers dropped their previous language describing the slack in the labour market as "significant" as they painted a more upbeat outlook for the economy, raising the possibility that rates could rise sooner than the markets currently expect.

The comments lifted the dollar against many major currencies with the dollar index up 0.5% above 86.4, pushing the price of commodities such as oil, gold and copper lower.

Miners, oil stocks fall

Mining groups dropped in the face of falling metal prices, with gold at a three-week low and copper pulling back from a six-week high. Fresnillo, Randgold, Anglo American, Glencore and Antofagasta were among the worst performers.

Royal Dutch Shell slipped as investors shrugged off a bigger-than-expected 31% jump in third-quarter earnings to $5.8bn, with the market also reacting to the news that chairman Jorma Ollila will step down after nine years.

Meanwhile, oil peers such as Tullow Oil, BP, Afren and EnQuest fell as the price of Brent crude declined nearly 1%.

After an earlier rise, Barclays fell into the red despite unveiling a better-than-predicted 14% jump in third-quarter adjusted pre-tax profit as it held costs to a five-year quarterly low. The bank however made a £670m provision against fines for rigging forex and PPI mis-selling.

Telecoms titan BT Group was lower despite reporting second-quarter earnings above market forecasts as strong demand for fibre broadband and sports channels led to a decent jump in profits. Operating profits rose 1% to £1.45bn, but sales fell 2% to £4.83bn.

Wealth manager St James's Place was a standout performer, rising strongly after seeing impressive inflows in its third quarter, helped by a big increase in demand for new ISA investments. Funds under management reached a record £49.1bn by 30 September, up 17% on the year before.

Market Movers
techMARK 2,724.86 -0.35%
FTSE 100 6,391.54 -0.97%
FTSE 250 15,194.68 -0.26%

FTSE 100 - Risers
St James's Place (STJ) 708.50p +2.98%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 635.00p +0.47%
BAE Systems (BA.) 447.80p +0.38%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,460.50p +0.37%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,089.00p +0.34%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,424.00p +0.28%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,135.00p +0.27%
Sage Group (SGE) 372.00p +0.27%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 225.20p +0.22%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,005.00p +0.20%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 3,885.00p -3.38%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 477.80p -3.28%
Fresnillo (FRES) 724.50p -3.27%
BT Group (BT.A) 364.00p -3.06%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,312.50p -2.96%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 964.40p -2.79%
Glencore (GLEN) 314.90p -2.72%
BG Group (BG.) 1,017.00p -2.63%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 685.50p -2.63%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,926.00p -2.03%

FTSE 250 - Risers
National Express Group (NEX) 243.70p +3.61%
Keller Group (KLR) 826.50p +3.51%
Infinis Energy (INFI) 219.00p +2.77%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 103.50p +2.58%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,257.00p +2.45%
Homeserve (HSV) 342.20p +2.42%
AL Noor Hospitals Group (ANH) 1,017.00p +2.42%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 195.50p +1.98%
Card Factory (CARD) 225.50p +1.90%
Victrex plc (VCT) 1,668.00p +1.89%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Afren (AFR) 85.30p -8.53%
AO World (AO.) 152.00p -6.17%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 102.00p -5.29%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 798.00p -4.83%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 217.10p -4.36%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 86.50p -3.51%
Lonmin (LMI) 173.20p -3.46%
EnQuest (ENQ) 71.55p -3.38%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 149.70p -3.17%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 150.40p -2.72%